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Ephesians 2:1-10 New Living Translation
1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins.
2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.
3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else.
4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,
5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)
6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.
7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus.
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
SERMON NOTES: GOD'S MASTERPIECE
You want to know how God sees you – verse 10 says, We are GOD'S MASTERPIECE, made in Christ Jesus to do what God created us to do.
We was made good but then sin destroyed that.
According to God’s Word, apart from Christ, something was not right about us. Something was missing from our lives.
Paul was very frank in Ephesians 2. He says there were at least 3 aspects that were wrong:
(1) We were dead in your transgressions and sins meaning spiritually dead.
(2) We have a sinful nature – you are sinner.
(3) And We were the object of God’s wrath.
That was verse 1 to 3. WE WERE like that… BUT GOD (in verse 4), he says God changed that.
This BUT was important. God showed up; and because He came, everything changed.
We need to re-establish the real value of our lives in Christ.
You are a MASTERPIECE of God.